Thursday, March 22, 2007

The web is becoming a dictatorship of idiots

This NEWSWEEK article titled “Invasion of the Web Amateurs”, blasts the current trend of citizen experts, and I just love the term “a dictatorship of idiots”, how true:

“Wikipedia, the popular Internet-based encyclopedia written and vetted by anyone who cares to contribute, as no more reliable than the output of a million monkeys banging away at their typewriters”

Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s I worked hard and I was paid for writing technical articles and books.

Back then, the competition was fierce.

Authors were carefully vetted, credentials checked, and the editor chose only the very best people to become authors. It was not random, not the pushy, only the people who deserved to be in-print.

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

A dictatorship of idiots

Today, any jackass can label themselves an “expert”, regardless of their qualifications. In the database arena, I’ve seen loads of “fake” experts, people who put-up a front as an expert, yet refuse to publish their resume, lest people know that they are not what they appear to be.

“sites like Wikipedia, along with blogs, YouTube and iTunes, are rapidly eroding our legacy of expert guidance in favor of a "dictatorship of idiots."

Reliable sources of information (like Encyclopaedia Britannica, your local newspaper and even your beloved NEWSWEEKly magazine) are under siege from an explosion of self-appointed writers, broadcasters and filmmakers whose collective output, charges Keen, is garbage.”